


Fluidity

by Corvid_Knight



Series: Demonstuck [42]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Demonstuck, Gen, Genderfluid Character, as in davepeta is an inadvertant shapeshifter, weird biology shit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-25
Updated: 2019-02-25
Packaged: 2019-11-05 17:36:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17923322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corvid_Knight/pseuds/Corvid_Knight
Summary: Davepeta is having some issues.





	Fluidity

"D, don't step on Davepeta." 

"What?" Honestly, without Seb's warning you probably would have tripped over the chimera; they're kind of hard to avoid right now, after all. Lying flat on their stomach on the floor, their arms and legs splayed out like they lost their ability to fight back against gravity halfway between the couch and the door, orange and green feathered wings taking up literally ninety percent of the floor...you love the kid, but this is a bit much. "Davepeta, what the fuck?"

All you get for a reply is something completely unintelligible, because they refuse to lift their face from the carpet. Crouching down next to them and experimentally petting through their hair has even less of a response; all you get that time is a muffled groan. 

"You okay?" 

Davepeta lifts their head perhaps half an inch, answers, "Nooooo," in a drawn out wail that sounds like a cat having its tail yanked, and drops their face right back onto the floor again. 

Okay, so direct questioning ain't gonna work. You settle down on the floor next to them so you can keep petting through their hair, paying special attention to the sensitive spots just behind their feline ears, and look up at Seb and Jr, who're watching you from the couch with what looks like intense interest. Knowing them, they've been watching Davepeta too, so... "You two got any idea what's wrong?" 

Seb nods emphatically, the one floppy ear on his bunny hoodie bobbing up and down in front of his face. What he _doesn't_ do is actually answer the question. Jr answers instantly, but they do it in sign language, which...you have exactly zero ability to understand when they're talking so fast. 

Dammit. 

Davepeta mumbles something else. You still don't know what it is. You resist the urge to join them on the floor, and instead use your goddamn words to communicate with your kids like a normal fucking person. 

"Seb, I need to know what the idea is, please. Jr, lil' too fast there, alright? Davepeta..." They just make more muffled sounds and rub their face against the carpet when you say their name. Maybe you should just put all questions directed at them on hold, yeah? "Y'know what Seb, can you just play translator for a sec?" 

"Yep!" He nods even harder for a moment—okay, somebody _really_ needs to fix the liner in that ear before he ends up poking himself in the eye with it—then shifts a bit to face Jr, bright blue eyes darting between his brother's hands and their face. "They say Davepeta's upset 'cause they shifted wrong—like everything's not lining up today? Like their body is _not_ cooperating with their head, it doesn't match and it's _frustrating_ —" 

"Okay, so you're not dying right this second though, right?" That was what you were worried about. Look, this family's had its share of crises, it's a valid fucking concern. 

"Am tooooo." Again, Davepeta's head comes up for just long enough that you can understand that unhappy yowl.   
This time, though, you get your free hand under their forehead before they can just smack their face back into the carpet, holding them up for the moment. "Kiddo, I feel like you can explain this for me better'n Seb and Jr, right? You're the one having issues, after all." 

"It's not an _issue_! I'm _wrong_!" The chimera punctuates that sentence by half-folding their wings and then snapping them out again, fast enough that you have to duck to keep from getting feather-slapped. "Stupid fucking shit! It's _wrong_!" 

"Davepeta—" Yikes? You just barely pull your hand back fast enough to avoid the blind swipe that they take at your arm; with their claws that probably wouldn't have been fun, if it'd connected. "Kiddo, I'm trying to help here, okay? You're kinda not making that easy." 

Maybe you should get Dave. He could tease out an answer from Davepeta way faster than you can, and probably make it less frustrating for everyone involved...

But they freeze at your last statement—that they're the one making this harder than it needs to be—and then make an unhappy crooning sound deep in their throat, slowly rolling over onto their side instead of staying on their stomach. One wing tucks back down behind them, folding out of the way; the other rearranges itself to fold in front of their body, hiding everything from their nose down to about their knees, bright frustrated eyes peeking at you over a downy greenish puff of feathers. 

"Sorry," they not-quite-whisper, watching you like they're trying to pick up some kind of cue on what you want from them. 

Sometimes it's way too easy to forget that even though they look almost old enough to drive, Davepeta's the youngest one here. Fuck, can you really blame them for just totally losing the ability to stop themself from lashing out sometimes? No. You really can't. 

"Hey, I'm fine. You missed me." When you reach down to go back to petting their hair, Davepeta closes their eyes and tips their head towards your hand. No purr, though. Damn. "I get it, kiddo, today's rough." 

"Mmm. Mhm." 

"Might be easier to make it less rough if you clue me in on what's up." 

"Nuh-uh." 

Okay then. Is this a _can't_ thing, or a _won't_ thing? Does it actually matter? 

You resist the urge to keep pushing, and look up at Seb and Jr instead. The former is just watching you with that intensely curious look that he has about ninety percent of the time; the latter is still signing at you, despite the fact that you know they've got to be aware that you can understand like none of it. Part of the problem here is that half of the signs they're using you don't actually recognize at all, and you're pretty sure that at least a couple of them are ones that the kids made up themselves to convey shit that they don't know the words for in ASL; like, you're pretty sure that the gesture of cupping both hands under your chest isn't a standard one, it looks like—

Wait, shit. "Spread your wings for a sec?" Davepeta makes a sound halfway between a caw and a growl, but they do what you ask them to, and as you get a better look at their black tanktop, you _finally_ start to get a handle on what today's crisis entails. 

Davepeta's chimeric nature manifests in a variety of ways, some static—their mingled avian and feline traits, their heterochromia—and some variable—mood swings, magic abilities that pop up and fade away, and shapeshifting. Like, not deliberate shifting, not the little changes of their wings, ears, and tail—their body fluctuates, like it's trying to balance between Nepeta and Davesprite and can't quite do it. Usually it's not a problem; as far as you can tell their gender isn't totally constant either, even if they stay pretty firmly nonbinary they've just kind of adjusted their presentation to fit whatever their body was doing, gone along with being a lil' more towards masculine or feminine or just added the necessary accessories to make themself happy about how they're presenting...but apparently this is past the limit to adjust to. 

It makes sense, now that you have the whole picture. Like, the pushup bras that they picked up when Roxy took them shopping can fix not having boobs when they want them, but it's kinda hard to correct the other way using the tools they've got at hand. That, or they just went straight to a meltdown when they figured out the disconnect. Either way, you're glad that they didn't get around to experimenting with makeshift ways to flatten their chest, honestly. 

Davepeta blinks in confusion when you sit back on your heels and fish your phone out of your pocket. Confusion is close enough to curiosity to get them to sit up after another second, folding their wings in front of themself like a feathery cape as you type in search terms. "What're you doing?" 

"Checking how to measure for a binder." ...huh. You wonder if their wings will make a difference in the sizing. Probably not; they phase right through clothes, after all. Hell, they phase right through skin when Davepeta wants them to. "Seb, Jr, can one of you get me a measuring tape? Like Kanaya would use, not like John's—" 

Yeah, you needed to make that distinction; Seb's halfway to the door before you can clarify, changing direction faster than you really think should be possible to follow Jr, who seems to have more of an idea what's going on. Davepeta's tail twitches as they watch the two of them move. 

Okay, that could take them a while to find, might as well finish reading through how to measure. At least it seems pretty simple. After a second you realize that Davepeta's inching over to sit next to you, head tilted to try and get a look at the screen. 

"Here." You hit the link that's got the guidelines for safely wearing a binder, and hand the phone over. "I know you got pretty damn near perfect recall—memorize that, okay? No fucking up your ribs allowed." 

"I heal from like, everything." 

"Yeah, well, let's make sure you don't _need_ to heal from this. Read." 

Davepeta huffs and leans up against you, and does as they're told. This time, when you reach up to pet behind their ears, you're rewarded with a satisfied purr. 

God, if only all crises were this easy to deal with.


End file.
